Protraph
Lack of good storyline.
Odelecol
Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.
Matho
The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.
OttoVonB
Imagine Pericles, Shakespeare's surreal drama, recast with a young female lead, and with the epic factor amped up to 11: elephants, volcanos, death cults and all the horrors of the Punic Wars, and you have Cabiria.It takes a particular self-distancing aptitude to appreciate silent films in our age as more that curiosities. For the most part, they fall into two categories: flat filmed melodrama that predates the sound era, and visual extravaganza that takes full advantage of the form.Metropolis and The Nibelungen are examples of the latter. Thankfully, so is Cabiria.Cabiria takes you - and let us not forget, the undoubtedly spellbound audience of 1914 - on a visual journey that would have been impossible on stage, showing a sophistication in its characterization, mise-en-scene, art direction and effects that is well ahead of its time. More importantly, it is a compelling tale of adventure. A silent film today's audience could actually enjoy!A word about access: I love watching people's reaction to the Eureka Blu-Ray of Fritz Lang's Metropolis. People think silent films were meant to look all soft and scratched. it is truly a wondrous thing to see these films as they were meant to be seen. Doing so for Cabiria is a bit harder: the Kino DVD transfer is far from ideal, and the imposed piano score does little justice to the scale of the film. An easy solution is to mute the audio on your DVD player or TV and patch in something grandiose, like Wagner's Ring...In any case, if you love films and are curious about their history, try this one on for size.
wforstchen
This one caught me off guard. I stayed up past midnight to watch "Cabiria" on TCM, mainly because of my interest in film history, figuring I'd watch it out of "academic" interest, but never expected to be so completely engrossed by a film 90 years old. Yes, the plot is jerky, the coincidences a big stretch for a modern audience, and for Americans hard to follow if you don't know the history of the Punic Wars, but set those issues aside and just simply enjoy the feast. I was truly caught up in the story. Not to offer a spoiler here, but the Temple of Moloch sequence blew me away. Its actually rather frightful and creepy. I wonder how many of the little kid actors who were being offered up as sacrifices, (and hard to believe that if alive today they'd all be near a hundred years old), wound up in therapy afterwards! There's even shades of Indiana Jones here with the rescue and I found myself cheering the heroes on. The siege, the special effects, even the closing scene are a treat and stand up amazingly well to modern eyes. An interesting social history point. The actress who played the evil princess undoubtedly was the definition of feminine beauty in 1914. . .things have indeed changed (for the better in my opinion!)One serious question and if there is a reader who is a historian with an answer let me know. There's a powerful scene in the Temple of Moloch where large golden hands appear above the priests, looking very much like the Hitlerian salute. Very similiar to the hand atop the helmet of one of the Tuetonic Nights in "Alexander Nevsky." Is there, just possibily a connection to the adoption of the salute twenty years later? I never knew about the actor "Maciste." I realized that here is the prototype for all the Italian "Hercules" of the 1950s that I use to love at the Saturday matinees of my childhood. The actor is truly dynamic, an Arnold Schwarznegger presence of the silent screen and in my opinion stole the entire movie. From the film history side you can see so many influences, on all that would come afterwards. While watching, its hard to believe that you are looking at images filmed before World War I, and all involved are long since gone. You see, as well, the promise of a new born art form that has become such a central part of our lives.
Ron Oliver
Kidnapped by Phoenician pirates from her Sicilian home, the infant CABIRIA grows to become involved in Rome's conflict with Carthage during the Second Punic War.Vast, intricate in plot & completely fascinating, here is one of the great silent epics which, fortunately, lives up to its legend. Full of daring rescues & breathless escapes, the film also features innovative camerawork & lighting techniques which would greatly influence D. W. Griffith & Cecil B. DeMille. (Some viewers may also see a strong resemblance between CABIRIA and the gigantic sets & bravado action highlighted in the Douglas Fairbanks swashbucklers of the 1920's.)Prolific director Giovanni Pastrone (1883-1959), using the pseudonym Piero Fosco, wrote the script and helped design the huge, elaborate sets, wanting to make his film the biggest, most thrilling epic ever produced. A million lira was budgeted for CABIRIA, a tremendous sum then, and location shooting was extended to Tunisia, Sicily & the Alps. The result was a tremendous success and ensured Pastrone's name would be enshrined in the history of world cinema. A true Renaissance Man, Pastrone left films in 1923 to devote himself to medical research.The acting is often rather ripe & sensationalized, but that was the prevailing style in Italian epics, which were doubtless influenced by Grand Opera's florid stage mannerisms. Special mention should be made of Umberto Mozzato as a heroic Roman spy, Bartolomeo Pagano as the muscular Maciste & Italia Almirante-Manzini playing a wicked Carthaginian queen.Sequences remain in the viewer's mind: the destructive eruption of Mount Etna; the truly terrifying scenes in the vile Temple of Moloch, with tiny naked children being thrown into the flames; and Hannibal's march - with elephants - over the mountains. Ancient Archimedes setting fire to the Roman fleet attacking Syracuse is unexpectedly amusing, while the movie climaxes with one of the most ostentatious suicides ever filmed.******************************There were three Punic Wars, which kept the ancient world embroiled from 264 BC until 146 BC while Rome & Carthage engaged in a death struggle to see who would emerge as the master of the Mediterranean. Battles raged in Europe & Africa, as well as on the Sea, but the last War ultimately ended with Rome's total victory and the complete & utter destruction of Carthage. The innocents sacrificed to the hideous Moloch were finally avenged.
Wendy Darling
Silent films don't have much of an audience these days. Be that as it may, I would like to recommend this film as a hugely influential costume epic that had great influence over the likes of D.W. Griffith (who did Intolerence right after!), Cecil B. DeMille, and even Fritz Lang (when he did Metropolis). Sure, it's long and it's got one of those convuluted plotlines typical of the period and historically it's crap, but the sets and costumes have to be seen to be believed! The scale of things is just fantastic, with giant temples and houses, all sorts of huge rooms and decoration all over anything, and hundreds and hundreds of extras with fabulous costumes, all done in pastiche of styles that range from Egyptian to Babylonian to this whole weird Indian look, although it's all set in North Africa. Then there's the melodramatic acting, which really can't be judged by today's standards, as there are few subtitles of dialogue, only very grand and wordy intertitles summarzing the plot and offering odes to gods and goddesses. This movie is a must-see if you're studying the history of epic films, early full-length movie, Griffith, etc., and even if you're not, it's a hoot (at least until half-way through, at which point you may decide you've had enough of the plot and can guess the rest.)
